Pan3 side to side motor

Has anyone taken pan3 side to side motor apart? Side to side motor will only turn about an 1/16 of an inch. Camera out of warranty

@Seapup seems to be into dissecting these cams, not sure if he’s done a Pan v3. From what I can see they are mostly glued together so it probably isn’t a simple task.

Have you tried manually (carefully) turning it side to side while powered off to see if you can free whatever is stuck in there, grain of sand or something possibly? Wiggling it back and forth may do it. If it moves fine manually but not from the motor, then that would tell me the motor is dead or possibly a gear has stripped out (not sure if these have gears or are direct drive).

Welcome to the Forum, @lherrmann! :wave:

I haven’t actually watched this video, but I did watch something similar recently, so the YouTube curation algorithm recommended it to me recently:

I dunno if that will be helpful or not.

This would indicate gears:

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This happened to one of my cam V3s. Here’s what I did to fix it.

Use the app to turn it to the left as much as it would allow. With the camera still on, manually turn it some more until it points where you want it. The gears will slip, it’s OK.

Then do the same thing in the opposite direction. These moves seem to establish the turn limit points.

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That’s good to know. Would you also go to :gear: Settings ⇝ Advanced Settings ⇝ Motor Controls ⇝ Reset Position ⇝ Reset after that?

I didn’t even reset.

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Such a rebel! :wink:

I took apart motor section (3 screws under rubber just as in the video). Motor is working fine when not in bearing section. Tried liberating but device will not turn easily within the bearing. Any suggestions?

Hard to say just from that picture, do the mating parts have any dirt or scratches, or is the plastic deformed?

Could just be the motor no longer has enough power to turn anything but itself.

no signs of dirt or scratches or deformed plastic. I presume the plastic piece is to turn within the metal bearing.

That would be my guess from your pictures but I can’t see the gear or what it drives.

So if you put it in with the power not applied, you can’t move it manually? There should be resistance but you should be able to move it pretty easily.

If it is stopping when you manually turn it (other than the normal stop at like 355 degrees) see if you can find what is snagging or catching.

I have the same issue. At first I thought I could do a warranty return but I was out of date.

I decided to take the rotating bottom part off and the camera rotates fine with it off. I thought this was a sleeve and not a bearing so cannot figure out what is binding.

Today I pried the cover of what I now know is a bearing. It show’s signs of rust and water infiltration.

Now I need to find a bearing puller to see if I can get it cleaned up and workable again. Any recommendations on an inexpensive puller? Is the bearing replaceable?

Since the camera is made to mount upside down and mine is exposed to the weather there must be an engineering failure to protect the bearing.

The bearing just popped out of mine. I was able to sand down the plastic around the bearing to allow it to turn back and forth but am sure that any engineering to keep out water is gone. Anyone know if the bearing is a true ball bearing device?

I did the same thing by sanding down the plastic part that rotates thinking that it was a riding on a sleeve. Today I picked the black plastic that covers the ball bearings and could see that the issue was. Now I need to get the bearing working again.

Well, I have done it. I turned this Pan Cam v3 into toast.

First, I crafted a wooden dowel slightly over one inch diameter into a tapered tool that would fit inside the bearing. I few turns and I freed the bearing from being frozen. Next I added a little WD-40 and it was smooth as like new.

Next I wanted to plug the camera in and test it. No go. The camera would not start at all.

I started removing parts until I got to the circuit board with the micro USB connector by itself. I have a USB volt & current indicator and I could see 5 VDC until I plugged it into the connector. Then it was 0 VDC, like shorted. Unplug it and back to 5 VDC.

Lesson learned; maybe keep the bottom of the camera covered when it is mounted upside down to keep water away from that bearing. I don’t consider it a loss since I already replaced it and did learn something.

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